Snooker season 2020/21

Arthur Daley wrote: »

After so much back to back snooker since October, just thought there, for 120 players there is just the Worlds left now and other than that the season is done when they lose here.

Edit: I suppose there are champions league etc. but in terms of regular ranking events.

The pro series is a ranker and the qualifiers for Sheffield are tiered again this year so there's some motivation to do well in it for a lot of players. Looking forward to a bit of a break now as the full week of qualifiers, then 17 days of Sheffield, then the Seniors was a long haul on the couch last summer!

Disaster for aaron there. Had chances to put pink away with opponent needing snooker but left the chance there and clarke pretty much schooled him. Expensive lessons at this level.

Aaron claws one back with the help of a massive fluke to 2-3, life in it yet.

And thats it for aaron. Had a chance there as he had in nearly all the frames. Cue ball control something he has to work really hard on with 4 weeks to world qualifiers. Lot of his issues are flowing from that i think.

Rothko wrote: »

Jimmy beats Bingham. I did not expect that.

Both played poorly has to be said.


Wakelen one away from beating Selby. Hope he can pull it off.

Wakelen gets an easy chance to finish it off. Selby out.

zuutroy wrote: »

Just saw that. Quite amazed!

It was an oddly entertaining match. Because both were playing to a poor standard and it became a match of who would be less annoyed with themselves who would get over the line.

And jimmy marches on to the last 16 to face selby conqueror Chris Wakelin. Some nervy stuff in the finish there! Just how far can jimmy go? A lot of fun finding out.

Would be a bit cruel for jack to reach his third final of the season and be denied by judd again. You'd think over this format, with the extra motivation to win his first ever title, that this should be his best ever chance to beat judd. Of course, can just sit back first and hope judd isn't in the final at all!

Poor selty didnt get much run on his birthday. But cant be reaching sfs and expecting better chances than he got today. Never looked like he fancied that yellow with the rest and barely made the postcode with his attempt. Judd v jack for the encore it shall be.

It's as if he thought he had the frame as good as won and lost concentration. Same as Selt did earlier by butchering an easy positional shot for the yellow after doing all the hard work.

Feel a bit for jack. When Yan Bingtao got to the final in riga a couple of years back, he only had to beat mark joyce to win his first title. Winning a title could make such a difference for jack but he gets a not far off A game judd tonight. As usual comes across really well in his interview but you wonder does he have that ruthless mean streak in him all the top guys have.

Not a darts follower but maybe that sport is ahead in terms of women playing and making some breakthroughs. Absolutely no reason they can't compete beyond societal. Rachel Blackmore has made it in horse racing, a sport only a few years ago the consensus had it they'd never be strong enough to match the males. Not so, just give them the encouragement and opportunity and all they need is time.

Reanne was on tour for a year before and didn't win a match. I dont know how either of them will fare this time, but point about the next gen is spot on. You have to nurture it.

Problem is that kids tend to be good at multiple sports before concentrating on one, and as long as snooker (and darts) insist that women need to compete with men in order to win the real money, then they'd be mad to choose those sports.

Like if your teenage daughter can knock in 50 breaks at snooker, beat every girl in her county at tennis, run 100M in 13 seconds and shoot sub 85s on a golf course, then there's a solid case for you to stump up a few grand to get proper coaching and see where it leads. Which sport would you choose - surely the ones where she can potentially make a lucrative career competing against just other women?

So the whole 'we are open to everyone, our sport aren't sexist' line that Matchroom pull is a bit flawed as by definition it acts as a barrier to that nextgen idea.

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Not sure i get that argument tbh. We know snooker is always going to struggle compared to other sports, it has some inherently inbuilt disadvantages. But that surely doesnt mean you dont try everything you can to promote it and encourage it to as wide a cross section as possible. I have my doubts whether anyone here will see a top ranked female player within their lifetimes, but it's still the correct thing to do imo.

I'm not sure about here but i know in amateur snooker across the uk women are still barred from some competitions and there are still men only snooker clubs. I dont think that should be happening in 2021.

I didn't know that there were still men only clubs/tournaments in the UK - that's obviously terrible.

My point (badly made) was probably better directed at waynescales post about why women aren't better at snooker and there being no real physical bar to them being able to match men.

My reply would be that as long as snooker has no separate tour for women then is no real incentive for them to ever choose it as a sport to take seriously as a potential career. Saying 'they can compete against men and if they are good enough they win the big bucks, so get practising girls' seems on the face a fair and logical approach.
But as long as other sports don't share this viewpoint then it doesn't work.

A huge percentage of sportspeople tend to be good at multiple sports and at some stage of their lives they have to make a decision. For a woman, concentrating on snooker would be a terrible bad decision when there's far easier money to made in segregated women's cricket, soccer, rugby etc.

This was brought home to me today reading about the female volleyball player in dispute about pregnancy leave in Italy. Now volleyball wouldn't be a sport on my radar at all, so I was surprised to read that €50K is a common enough women's contract in various Euro Leagues, much more for elite players.

Even in snooker we had say Alison Fisher who could have spent a few decades hanging around the 80 mark in the rankings continually fighting for her card. Instead she earned $6M on the Women's Pool Tour in USA and Asia. I'd be surprised if Mink doesn't end up going the same route (notwithstanding that pool isn't in a great situation currently worldwide).

Obviously Barry is never going to go for a women's snooker circuit with 10 x £250K events, so the situation isn't going to suddenly change.

Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post. Off to drag the nieces off their 6x3 table and see if they are any good at volleyball.

As regards mens only clubs, Rebecca Kenna is the top amateur in the uk and has been fairly outspoken about her experiences in being refused to play in competitions because they were taking place in certain clubs.

Some performance by Ronnie yesterday in the Pro Series. Didn't see much of it, but he basically didn't play a safety all day, attempted a 2-cushion thin glance break-off and played his next shot one handed against Tom Ford. In the next frame he let out a massive fart and had a fit of the giggles while continuing his break. Needless to say, he finished last in his group!